Thursday, 22 March 2012

Question Time - Rich vs Poor, Old vs Young edition

David Dimbleby is joined in Grimsby by Vince Cable,{our old friend. - Vince for Health Secretary!} Chuka Umunna,brightest of the bright of the New-Old labour front bench. Bright like an eco bulb. Takes a while to warm up to his 11w glow.} David Davis, {the last principled politician in Parliament. Principles tend to shift about a bit } Melissa Kite {Spectator journo and horse lover,} and Marina Lewycka.{A successful comic novelist who I don't recognise. Writes about the elderly too. Which may well come in handy for her tonight.}

Mr Drew opens the batting.1) Budget, is '45%' etc the death of "we're all in it together" ?+ lots more budget-driven drivel2) Reaction to Muamba - is this the Best of British ?3) Should ransoms ever be paid ?4) Are the French shootings the beginning of some spill-over of ME into EU and wider ?

25 comments:

-1 Granny tax - Why are tories/liberals punishing those least able to cope?{Funny this media storm. I've been with the silver mob all morning in constituency. Not one mentioned it.no doubt it will become an issue later on.A few weeks ago the same media were howling for the older citizens to give up their £200/£300 heating allowance.}

Just for gits & shiggles (or something like that), I will make my very late (and budget-heavy) QT quiz debut:

1) NHS bill passed - is this the actual death knell of the NHS as we know it?2) Tax breaks for business - leads to argument about big business not paying taxes in the first place.3) 37p on smokes - not-so-stealth tax on the poorer/underclass?4) Fabrice Muamba @ tasteless tweets - is it right that someone is arrested, jailed, & given a more punitive sentence for "offensive" tweets than for "normal crimes" like assault/GBH/etc? (See also Robin Hood Airport case).

Probably only 4 again as the Budget will dominate proceedings - expect plenty of point-scoring off VC, due to being both a former(?) corporate shill AND a current cabinet minister...

Agree with everyone about the likelihood of Budget Bloviating. Just the four:1. Is it right that pensioners should fund tax cuts for the rich? 2. Fuel going up to 145p/litre, how can the economy recover like this?3. Coalition angle: were the LD's right to support this budget?4. A sport question for light relief. Did we actually pay someone to come up with that Olympic kit design?

I was tempted to go for a question about Greggs pastries going up in price, but you can carry Northern stereotypes too far.

- so far the recession has hit the young hardest, isn't actually about time that grannies felt the pain?

- is fuel actually just to expensive

- this was a budget of pointless tinkering - where is GROWTH going to come from

I have a feeling Dimbo will want to bring up the embarrassing fact that real public expenditure has actually risen from 2010-2012. This awkward fact is rather embarrassing to both sides, who prefer to talk about governement cuts and austerity, so it must be a club for Dimbo to beat someone with.

1. Has Gideon taken away Mabel’s weekly bingo card? 'Course not but who is suffering? In case this gets overlooked, I want to point out that Labour took £100bn out of pensions.

2. Aren’t we helping poor people when we pay ransoms?

3. A question for Uncle Vince’s pet interests... is taxing the rich, having a bloated public sector and attracting business mutually exclusive? Let him refer to GSK, enterprise, tax breaks, SDLT…. boring but essential.

4. Dog control. Should chavs register their hounds?

5. Will they arrest this white man who killed (that bit is not disputed) a black boy in Florida, even if there is no evidence against him? Don’t get me going on US double standards, Obama a lawyer too.

You got home from work early Botogol? I didn't know you took the quiz so seriously. ;-)

Extra mark if someone points out what piffle Ed Balls has be waffling about this week please.

5. Can the panel explain why electricity generation will no be a"qualifying business activity" for EIS and VCT purposes if the companyis in receipt of FiT's or similar subsidies? This will not apply toanaerobic digestion or hydro power, could any member of the panelexplain why HMRC distinguishes between 'good' and 'bad' subsidies?

Clearly, if you're a granny who lives in a mansion owned by anoffshore company and who drives her children to school, whose job isrunning an EIS company in receipt of FiT's for a salary of over£60,000, you're going to be pretty pissed off with all this.

- top rate chop to 45p.Vince defends his mansion tax.- child benefit - Miss S-J loses hers, yet her brother keeps his, despite the fact he owns 8 houses and drives a Bentley. And he just got a cut to his capital gains.Not that I'm angry or anything..fgrrr

- granny paying for millionaire bankers to get rich or similar- road pricing. is it a good idea?- NHS - Should the doctors now embrace the reforms?

1. The budget, which could morph into 2,3,4 and even 5? So;Pensioners/grany tax,Mansion tax, ('Mansion', what a larf. £2m won't get you a mansion in central London)Is the cabinet incl Vince Cable, better off? (probably)45p rate and child benefit - I am astonished that £40-50K earnering parents will pay more %tax than those earning over £150K. And duel household income of < £39K+£39K pays less tax than £40K? Is that right? Budget really hitting aspirational middle Britain.Welfare cuts to come - don't get me started.Corporation tax good so there are some things to praise.

2. But if it isn't all about the budget then Afghanistan/troop withdrawal?

3. Corruption in the ranks? Can the MOD be trusted to put all the corrupt journos and politicians against the wall come the revolution?

4. Should Greggs sell sausage rolls at less than ambient temperature as a tax avoidance measure or is that a tax avoidance measure the government haven't closed yet? Sorry, back to the budget again.

1. - Granny tax. Audience annoyed but the panel seem to be on the ball about actual figures. i expect pensioners to be worse off in general.

2. Does cutting the top rate to 45psignal the end of all in it together.

i think that went about a year ago. Umanananna talking in circles about his party policy. Grimsby applaud his hypocracy like mad. Labour till we die.David Davis got a small amount of claps for saying Labour were hippos.

3 - Kidnap and ransoms question.CU on Twitter arguing with a student labour party member.

4 - regional pay .- Ahh. good question. Does not get a proper discussion. Teacher say she needs more pay because its a lot further for her to get to Disneyland Paris and she can't nip over to Calais for some wine. What an idiot.

5. Stupid question about the Uk becoming a republic.

6 - yes six questions! Miss CD was right. - Road pricing and tolls.It takes over an hour to get through the toll on the Nice-San Remo road at rush hour. And its a massive 20 booth toll station, fully automated with oyster type electric cards and so on.

**************************

We don't get the usual NHS question and the NHS twitterers, of which there are hundreds, are furious at this week's snub.

Here's a tweet from someone suffering from capslock.

"WHY AREN'T WE TALKING ABOUT THE NHS BEING ANNIHILATED THIS WEEK?"

+

So, tonight we're going to give airtime to a drunken idiot wanting to discuss the UK becoming a republic, but no mention of the NHS +THE QUEEN? yeah let's definitely discuss some pie in the sky idea of a republic instead of the NHS. let's definitely do that+"I can't think of anything that's as good value as the Queen." I submit the NHS, your honour